Authorities fear that more victims could be found, since each carriage carries at least one hundred people. So far, 89 people have been treated for injuries in local hospitals. Three of them are critical.
It’s the first accident in the history of the Chinese much trumpeted high speed train network. China is investing heavily in them but recently there have been reports of a slow down because they were believed to be unsafe.
Apparently, the critics were right. [Hexun, Sohu, Telegraph]
Wgong
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 12:16 PMBit of a misleading title there. I know some people use the name “bullet train” as a generic term for all high-speed rail, but to me it only refers to Japan’s shinkansen trains. I think China has been trying to pinch a bit of Japan Rail’s reputation for reliability by calling their trains Bullet Trains.
That aside, this is a major system breakdown! There are a lot of highly reliable interlocked systems that prevent two trains from colliding either from head-on or up the backside. I’m really surprised that a new railway could be built without these systems in place, so there must have been multiple failures for this to happen! I hope we get to find out what went wrong.
boc
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 1:58 PMYou could call them “bullet trains” as they’re inferior knock-offs of the Kawasaki designed shinkansen.
It’s being reported that the first train came to a halt after being struck by lightning and then the second train rear-ended it as it didn’t know the train in front had stopped.
Inferior design, corruption, failure to meet safety requirements, lack of shielding against lightning, and inadequate warning systems – “made in China” quality.
I feel sorry for the people of China that have to live with this incompetency.
cayal
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 2:20 PMI don’t get why they just don’t build two tracks. One for going one way and another for the other way.
Problem solved.
James Allan
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 2:45 PMYep, problem solved, you’d be able to look out your window at the terrible scene of a stationary high speed train having been rear-ended by another, as you whizz by in the opposite direction.
Digitalus
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 3:31 PMThis. +1
Steve
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 6:50 PMChinese Engineering at its finest!
And the thing is only two years old. Barely in its infancy and there’s a goddamn head-on collision.
Scott
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 8:32 PMThe reason so many commentors are assuming it was a head on is because Jesus used the phrase “Two bullet trains collide”. While it may be technically correct to say the two “collided” it is an unfortunate choice of words unless of course you are deliberately trying to be sensationalist and make you readers picture two trains moving towards each other. You would of course correct this by noting in the body of your story that is was a rear end just like Jesus did, oh wait..
Justin
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 3:22 AMAnytime anything bad happens in China, it’s always with the ‘made in china’ comments and the sentiment that Chinese are confused and incompetent buffoons/mindless drones.
If it happened in another country it’s ‘oh those poor innocent free individuals who had families waiting for them!’…